Results from CERN experiment WA 80

Selected WA 80 results from nucleus-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV/nucleon are presented. Global event characteristics are discussed in terms of the role of projectile-target geometry and with reference to nuclear stopping and attained energy densities. Neutral pion- and η-meson yields are deduced from photon measurements. The production of η mesons is consistent with mT scaling observed in hadron-hadron reactions. Direct, single-photon yields are obtained. A slight excess of photons over the number of photons that can be accounted for by the radiative decay of long-lived resonances is observed for central events. Source radii are extracted from two-proton correlations in the target fragmentation region. Results indicate that entire target nuclei are involved in all reactions studied at 200 GeV/nucleon. (author). 11 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs